It’s 1908. The West has changed. Grizzled frontiersman Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) hasn’t. Despite the fortune he’s made selling water to thirsty desert travelers, he lies in wait. Someday two no-account desert rats – who long ago robbed Hogue and left him to die in the baking Arizona sand – will drop by for a drink.

After the violence of The Wild Bunch, director Sam Peckinpah shifted moods with this memorable fable, less a tale of revenge that it is a lyrical, touching tribute to the last days of the West’s pioneering spirit. Stella Stevens and David Warner lead an excellent supporting cast that also includes L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin as Hogue’s old enemies.

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Video Quality

Warner Archive provided The Ballad of Cable Hogue with a robust 1080p master transfer in 1.85:1 when it was released in 2017 sourced from a new 2K scan of the Interpositive. The team at Warner Archive and MPI were able to shine this one up quite a bit to make it look the best it ever has on home entertainment. The label has nearly eradicated any slight imperfections with no serious instances of damage or dirt detected. The natural film grain is retained to enrich the cinematography of Lucien Ballard.

The film taps into the deep, earthy colors within the dusty expanses and complementary outfits. This transfer delivers welcome accuracy when it comes to these hues. Highlights stay firm and black levels are largely deep outside a few milky moments. Compression artifacts, banding, and other such shortcomings do not emerge as an issue in this transfer. This is a fabulous transfer bursting with detail and clarity. Warner Archive has treated this Sam Peckinpah gem well here.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with an active DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio split mono track that translates this material without issue. The Jerry Goldsmith score establishes the appropriate tone while staying clear of obvious anomalies. The more bustling moments of gunfire are handled appropriately and give the track a bit of texture. Dialogue and environmental noises work in tandem with the score so everything has a commanding presence in the mix. Exchanges come through clearly with no elements stealing undue focus. There is no obvious damage to the track such as hissing, dropouts, or popping. Warner Archive has put forth a worthy disc. Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included for the feature film.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Historians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle provide an archival commentary track in which they discuss the career of Sam Peckinpah, how this fits into his output, how this film compares to classic westerns, the careers of the performers, the visual aesthetic of the film and more that is well worth a listen for fans.

The Ladiest Damn’d Lady – An Afternoon with Actress Stella Stevens: A 27-minute entertaining interview with the lead actress in which she recounts her career and her experiences working on The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

Trailer (2:58)

Final Thoughts

The Ballad of Cable Hogue is one of our favorite Sam Peckinpah outings to date. Jason Robards delivers an amazing performance as a lovable scamp who we ultimately want to see succeed. The film has a fairly robust runtime, yet it never leaves you bored as it takes time to get you invested in the characters. There is an undercurrent of dark humor that keeps things engaging. This title is not mentioned as often in the filmmaker’s legacy, but it is well worth a watch for any Western fan. Warner Archive has released a Blu-Ray that sports a top-tier A/V presentation but not much in the way of special features. Recommended

The Ballad of Cable Hogue can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Warner Archive has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.